Apple expects to complete the stake purchase by summer, the business daily reported on Tuesday.

The U.S. company "apparently wants to meld" the design of core display components into its overall product development as image quality becomes a crucial selling point for smartphones, the Nikkei said.

Sharp, which owns 25 percent in Renesas SP, is expected to sell its stake to Apple if the U.S. company asks, the newspaper said.

Renesas has been hit by slowing orders and competition from companies such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

The Japanese company received a 150 billion yen bailout from a government-led fund and its major customers in September to counter an earlier bid by U.S. private equity firm KKR & Co LP . ($1 = 103.58 Japanese yen) (Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bangalore; Editing by Kirti Pandey)